US refuses to cancel Obama's Dalai Lama meeting

source

WASHINGTON — The United States on Friday escalated a mounting row on multiple fronts with China, refusing Beijing's demand to cancel President Barack Obama's meeting next week with the Dalai Lama.

The deepening public spat over Tibet, a row over US arms sales to Taiwan, China's dispute with Google and trade and currency disagreements, come at a key diplomatic moment, as Obama seeks Chinese help to toughen sanctions on Iran.

The White House announced Thursday that Obama would hold his long-awaited meeting with the revered Dalai Lama at the White House next week, drawing an angry reaction from China and a demand for the invitation to be rescinded.

I applaud Obama on this decision. If the US is to be a world leader and example of diplomatic relations then all dignitaries should be allowed to be met and have open dialogue despite differences between other entities. The US is not asking for China's support on Iranian sanctions because we dislike them. We are asking for those sanctions of a fellow nuclear power to let Iran know that there are steps of responsibility and trust that has to be met.

China should know that just because we speak with someone, it does not mean that we are going to align with them. Personally, I have sat and talked with people I could care less about but did so out of polite respect.

[edit on 13-2-2010 by Ahabstar]

Although I am no President Obama fan I still applaud this move.

i believe it was the CIA who smuggled him out of Tibet back in the 1950's.



[edit on 13-2-2010 by whiteraven]

Go Obie Go !!!! Go Obie Go !!!!

Try telling the Chinese not to incarcerate their "dissidents" after having a 1 day speedy gonzales trial to lock them up for years......

I've never understood how China the worlds next up and coming power can be so TERRIFIED of the Dalai Lama. A simple human being


Actually I understand why they feel the way they do but it sure makes them look like a bunch of paranoid wimps.


[edit on 13-2-2010 by SLAYER69]

My guess is that it's got something to do with unfinished business cause he managed to escape to India.

It's what he stands for.... the Religious and Political Head of Tibet (until Chairman Mao decided otherwise.....)

China owns everything in this country almost.
This is a smokescreen IMHO. It's designed to make people feel like the US can stand up to China anytime it wants to.
See! TPTB in the US are saying. Obama's gonna march right over and speak with the Dalai Lama. No matter what those Chinese say about it, they can't stop it!
Escalating a row, really?
This is a good find, OP.
I'm lamenting this psy op.
China OWNS America. This is just TPTB giving the impression that the US will do whatever they want to in regards to China. See! they are saying,
We are sending the POTUS anyway!
No disrespect to the Dalai Lama of course.


[edit on 13-2-2010 by dragonsmusic]

Originally posted by dragonsmusic
China OWNS America. This is just TPTB giving the impression that the US will do whatever they want to in regards to China. See! they are saying,
We are sending the POTUS anyway!
No disrespect to the Dalai Lama of course.

The only thing China OWNS are some pieces of Paper that are basically IOU's to be paid out in 30 years.


But I sometimes I forget that this is a Conspiracy site.
U.S.-China Friction: Why Neither Side Can Afford a Split

In short, China is brimming with confidence, and in recent weeks that self-confidence has turned into arrogance, with scorn for the U.S. There is a long legacy of Chinese distrust of the West. Today, Chinese nationalists cannot explicitly criticize Beijing, but they can indirectly attack the government by challenging the close relationship between the U.S. and China. For many in China, the U.S. is a corrupt nation that bears China no goodwill and will drag China down if Beijing doesn't find a way to distance itself from the American economic embrace. (Comment on this story)

But while many Chinese take delight in America's plight and would like to end the close embrace that has brought China such prosperity over the past two decades, they are falling prey to delusions of grandeur. The fact remains that as much as China may want to go it alone, it cannot. (See pictures of the global financial crisis.)

To begin with, it holds more than $1 trillion in U.S. assets, mainly in U.S. Treasuries. No other country or entity in the world could absorb those assets if China wanted to sell them, and with China's currency value pegged to the dollar, any massive sale would lead to a steep decline in the Chinese currency and economy. China's holding of U.S. debt is leverage only in a theoretical world where it could dump its U.S. assets or stop buying more. What's more, even a hobbled America is the world's largest economy and the most significant market for Chinese goods. In 2009, a supposedly bad year, Chinese exports to the U.S. were approximately $300 billion, about the same as in 2007. That is a vast source of income for China — and one that no other part of the world can provide.

The U.S., meanwhile, has been a source of billions of dollars in direct investment in China, from thousands of American companies big and small. While it's true that China doesn't need any one of these companies as much as each one needs China, China needs all of them and depends on them for everything from brand-name goods to know-how and capital. Beijing can't just snap its fingers and go it alone; its domestic economy is far too entwined with that of the U.S., its companies, its capital and its consumers.

There's little question that neither China nor the U.S. wants to be dependent on the other. China's rhetoric of late is proof, and you could easily demonstrate the same attitude coming from Americans. But each country has tied its economy to the other, and buyer's remorse notwithstanding, there is no immediate exit from this relationship. It remains a source of stability and prosperity for both countries. Two decades ago, China cast its lot with the United States, and until recently, that has brought it affluence. Now that things have gotten difficult, the Chinese want out. But when the heady intoxication of these weeks wears off, they will find that they have nowhere else to go.

[edit on 13-2-2010 by SLAYER69]

reply to post by SLAYER69


Slayer you're supporting my point. Is it just me or does your post not sort of seem to be framed as if it were in opposition to it?
China OWNS Washington, OWNS America.
Their ecomony can thrive without American businesses over there.
It's not a balanced situation, and the POTUS going to talk to the Dalai Lama stikes me as having more to do with making people think that we , the US, are not scared of China.

If China doesn't like it, that's too bad. There is no reason why our president shouldn't have this meeting.

reply to post by dragonsmusic


I disagree. China has a Theoretical Ownage of the US.

There are two things that China hates.

1. The Dalai Lama rubbing elbows with western powers.


2. Taiwan standing separate.
China Threatens to Dump U.S. Treasury Bonds Over Taiwan Arms Sales

China has quite the history of threatening to dump its U.S. Treasury bond holdings in retaliation for unspecified U.S. actions or to achieve specific economic ends. Reuters notes that China is currently the largest holder of U.S. Treasuries, and has actually doubled its holdings since 2007.

Some economists think it’s all just posturing, particularly as the military has little influence over economic regulators in China. India’s Daily News & Analysis reports that most analysts recognize that if China dumps its Treasuries, it will do as much damage to its own economy as to the United States’:

[Patrick Chovanec, associate professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing said] “The Chinese economy continues to depend on exporting products for dollars – and accumulating even more dollars,” noted Chovanac. Chinese exports, GDP growth employment — all of it depended on China’s continued ability to sell product for dollars.

In other words, selling Treasuries would devalue the dollar, causing China to hurt its own ability to export to the United States — which is still the engine of its economy. Furthermore, Chovanec added that if China simply wanted to devalue the dollar, it could stop artificially devaluing its currency against the dollar, which is what the United States wants and China has resisted for years.

Dumping U.S. Treasuries en masse would be the economic equivalent of China cutting off its nose to spite its face, and the people in charge of China’s economy recognize that (for now). That there are some there who value the One-China policy above all else is little surprise; that they’re not in charge of China’s economy should come as little, too.

[edit on 13-2-2010 by SLAYER69]

A lot of people saying they support the visit . (shrugs) could care less.

When Obama meets him, and BOWS .

All you same people will have a Bird .

Mark My Words.

Good for the President. Like the Pope, the dalai lama commands no armies, but like the Pope, commands vast respect and influence. Stalin got it wrong, so to have the Chinese.

It's time and past for the Chinese to realize that, for all our problems and travails, we're still the big dog. Dump Tbills? So? We'd survive I'm almost certain...

I just hope he doesn't bow...'cause having a bird hurts.

Originally posted by seagull


I just hope he doesn't bow...'cause having a bird hurts.

And the irony of your user name is...

But yes, treating dignitaries their due respect is more important than the threat of the political/economic retribution that China may enact in retaliation.

Ultimately it would just make China look weak and petty.

reply to post by Ahabstar


I know whereof I speak....

Some things are more important than economics... The morale of a nation is important, too. There's only so much kowtowing we can do...it's time for it to stop.

The Chinese want to play? Fine. Let's see where the chips fall...I'm betting on us.

Sometimes a nation should be known, not for who it's friends are, but by who it calls an enemy...

...and no, I'm not calling for a war. It's time and past for America to draw a line in the dirt, and tell China enough. If not us, who?

Originally posted by SLAYER69
I've never understood how China the worlds next up and coming power can be so TERRIFIED of the Dalai Lama. A simple human being

Actually I understand why they feel the way they do but it sure makes them look like a bunch of paranoid wimps.


[edit on 13-2-2010 by SLAYER69]

I believe they feel that way, and so vehemently so, because the Dalai Lama, as long as he draws breath, is a living reminder of the illegitimacy and brutality of their annexation of sovereign Tibet.

To hear several on the boards here, one would think that the US has the corner on THAT market. Probably a bit embarrassing to them, too, to be reminded that China is so much better at it.

Anyhow, I hate the ground Obama walks on, and nearly everything he stands for and strives for, but in this case I have to give the man props. I said elsewhere that if he backed off of this on Chinese insistence, he was wussidom personified. He HASN'T backed down, a correct decision, and I find my self forced to give the man all the credit he's due for it.

Go man, GO!

reply to post by SLAYER69



There are a lot more than just those things that China hates.
My theory is that those holdings mean far more than what Western journalists and economists realize.
They don't have to dump them en masse, which is always the argument against the points I'm making.
China could drop them in sections at a time, which is something almost noone ever writes about.
If they did that they could cripple our economy while making sure theirs retained equilibrium.

Originally posted by dragonsmusic
China could drop them in sections at a time, which is something almost noone ever writes about.

China selling them at a loss would be a loss to them not us. They still would have their pay out value due in 30 years not now.

I believe before President Obama took the oath and after he was advised by the pentagon and alphabet guys, and then met with the other presidents that it was then that he discovered that their aint gonna be any change you can believe in.

Whatever it is that is going on it is beyond the control of any of the Presidents or any single man in power.

Do you think that Abe Lincoln or Jefferson Davies had desire to go to war...

Unknown unknowns and known unknowns roam this planet with access to stuff that can do harm...or so they want you to believe.

Maybe the Dali knows some known unknowns.

lol

This is a conspiracy site.

[edit on 13-2-2010 by whiteraven]

[edit on 13-2-2010 by whiteraven]

reply to post by SLAYER69


I think it would be a loss they could handle though, Slayer.
They could dump it if their leaders were pissed off enough at our leaders.
Our loss would be huge in comparison to what they would lose. And they can always subsidize their industrial sector if the losses are too great.
I'm not saying I want China to do this obviously, just that they could cripple us this way and most don't realize it.

Originally posted by SLAYER69

Originally posted by dragonsmusic
China could drop them in sections at a time, which is something almost noone ever writes about.

China selling them at a loss would be a loss to them not us. They still would have their pay out value due in 30 years not now.

Might want to rethink that.
first off, no one would buy any more , not the amounts needed anyway,
So the Fed Ponzi would have to step up and buy the remaining 20%.

(Fed bought 80% last auction)